Harp and Strings

Learning to play the harp and viola da gamba

Eight Months of Progress on the Viola da Gamba

I have now been learning the viola da gamba for eight months, and a progress post is overdue!

Over the past several months, I’ve been gradually working through the exercises and duets in Grace Feldman’s The Golden Viol: Method for the Bass Viola da Gamba (vol. I) at weekly lessons. During that time, I’ve also had the opportunity to observe a workshop presented by Ros Morley and I have attended a workshop presented by Lee Inman on bowing technique, both organized by Cascadia Viols. Progress has felt slow and difficult to track, but I do have video evidence that I will share further down in this post!

Finding motivation to practice was challenging at first because of my dislike of the sounds I was producing. Harp was a far more welcoming instrument in this regard, and my respect for violinists and other players of bowed string instruments has only increased through the experience. Happily, the benefits of learning the viola da gamba that I identified a few months ago—increased comfort with the bass clef, an opportunity to focus on playing music with others, exposure to different music, etc.—have all held true. Focusing on these benefits has helped me maintain motivation to practice.

An additional challenge has been dealing with sticky pegs. Much to my chagrin, I frequently found that I was unable to properly tune because the tension pegs on my gamba would get stuck. I recently had the pegs replaced with geared pegs, which is making tuning far easier and faster. It is now possible to tune while bowing, which will allow me to work on tuning by ear more effectively.

For those of you learning a new instrument, I really do recommend taking occasional practice videos. Even if you’re similar to me and don’t particularly like being on video, being able to witness your own progress over time is encouraging.

So, without further ado, I present this video of me playing G major scales and part of Exercise One from Grace Feldman’s book, mentioned above. I recorded this in January 2019, when I had been playing for about two and a half months. Only listen if you have brave ears.

Practicing G major scales and exercises at two and a half months of progress on the viola da gamba.

And here, by point of comparison, is a duet that I recorded yesterday with my viola da gamba instructor (he’s playing off camera).

Never Weather-Beaten Sail duet at eight months of progress on the viola da gamba.

Prior to revisiting the first video today while preparing to write this blog post, I felt that I hadn’t made much progress at all!